6 Famous Musicians Accused of Racism: Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and more : Exclusives : Music Times Share on Facebook Share on Twitter David Bowie as the Thin White Duke, 1976 (Photo : Getty Images) In an email sent to Pitchfork yesterday, drummer Kliph Scurlock explained why he was fired from the Flaming Lips, blaming singer Wayne Coyne and accusing him of racism. In our increasingly progressive society, accusations of racism are thrown around quite often, and as this story shows, even great musicians are subject to it. Here are six other great artists who have been accused of racism. 1. David Bowie David Bowie has made a career out of reinventing himself, both physically and musically, but his most controversial persona was his Thin White Duke character from 1976, a self-described "emotionless Aryan superman" that Bowie developed for his Station to Station album. Around this time, Bowie would make several pro-fascist comments during interviews, including praises of nationalism and Adolf Hitler, culminating in a famous photograph of Bowie allegedly giving a Nazi salute. In later years, Bowie would blame his actions during this time on his heavy drug use and commitment to the Thin White Duke persona.

Advertisement 2. Eric Clapton Though Eric Clapton was part of a generation of British musicians who were heavily inspired by American blues, some comments he made in 1976 seem to contradict his love of black culture. During a concert, Clapton voiced his support for anti-immigration politician Enoch Powell, going to so far as to use racial slurs and shout "Keep Britain white!" Clapton would defend his comments by saying they were intended to be funny, but he's never retracted or regretted his support for Powell. 3. Bob Dylan Even attempts to denounce racism can unintentionally turn into something offensive, as Bob Dylan learned last year. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan commented on the lingering racism in American culture, saying "If you got slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that." But the comment that caused trouble for him was the next one, "Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood." A French-Croatian community association sued both Dylan and Rolling Stone over the remarks (apparently you can be sued in Europe for being racist), though the charges were dropped just a few weeks ago. 4.

Nico Warhol protégé and Velvet Underground singer Nico was born in Germany at the height of the Third Reich, and the white supremacist agenda of the Nazi party apparently never left her, even as she got older and moved to the US. Close friends have recalled her hostility towards Jews and blacks, with journalist Danny Fields claiming, "She had a definite Nordic Aryan streak, [the belief] that she was physically, spiritually, and creatively superior." 5. Morrissey Morrissey has been accused of racism for most of his career as the result of various interview comments and song lyrics. He's been quoted as denouncing black music ("Reggae is vile"), has described the Chinese as a "sub-species" due to their animal rights policies, and has written allegedly anti-immigrationist lyrics for songs like "Bengali in Platforms" and "The National Front Disco" (though for the record, I don't think these songs are from his perspective). Though Morrissey is never one to apologize for anything, he joined Unite Against Fascism in 2004, and donated money to the Love Music Hate Racism concert in 2008. 6.

Varg Vikernes If someone has served 15 years in prison for arson and murder, being called a racist is probably no big deal to them, and in Varg Vikernes' case, he wholeheartedly accepts the label. Vikernes was an early figure in the Norwegian black metal scene, which was notoriously violent and white supremacist, with Vikernes even identifying as a Neo-Nazi for a period (though he later rejected the label, as it conflicted with his support of democracy). Though Vikernes is a self-indentified white supremacist, in a 2009 interview he claimed to hate nobody based on race, because apparently there's a difference. Inside David Bowie's Many Colorful Personas - Yahoo Inside David Bowie's Many Colorful Personas By MEGHAN KENEALLY January 11, 2016 8:10 PM Legendary Singer David Bowie Dies at Age 69 Now watching Next video starts in : 7 Play Legendary Singer David Bowie Dies at Age 69   David Bowie 's various personas were as popular and attention-grabbing as his music that catapulted him to stardom.

Born David "Davey" Jones, the British musician turned into a man of many names. Here is an overview of some of his best-known personas. View photo Ziggy Stardust Ziggy Stardust was an alien-looking being that Bowie enacted in the early 1970s. With the character's distinctive thunderbolt drawn in the middle of his pasty white face, a dyed-red mullet and tight jumpsuits, the look was unique. "I mean he was half out of sci-fi rock and half out of the Japanese theater," Bowie said of Ziggy during a PBS interview in 2014. "The clothes were, at that time, simply outrageous. Nobody had seen anything like them before." Bowie never stayed in one persona for too long, noting in the PBS interview that his time as Ziggy was limited to roughly two albums. "They are one shot, they are cartoons and the Ziggy thing was worth about one or two albums before I couldn't really write anything else about him or the world that I sort of put together for him," he said. Halloween Jack The next character that Bowie created was Halloween Jack, who at first glance looks somewhat similar to Ziggy but with some clear changes.

Maintaining Ziggy’s spiked mullet but dying it a shockingly red color, Bowie donned an eye patch, platform heels, scarves and a look that would later inspire innovators of punk rock. Halloween Jack debuted in conjunction with Bowie's album "Diamond Dogs" in 1974 which included the hit "Rebel Rebel." In the album's eponymous song, Bowie described Halloween Jack as "a real cool cat." Musician David Bowie Has Died at 6 Thin White Duke In 1976, a man known as the Thin White Duke appeared with the release of Bowie's 10th album, "Station to Station." In the mid-70s, Bowie ditched his mullet, slicked back his hair and switched to smarter attire: white shirts, scarfs and waistcoats for the Thin White Duke. The neo-cabaret character was influenced by Bowie's first major film role -- alien Thomas Jerome Newton in Nicolas Roeg's cult sci-fi film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” released in 1976. Major Tom While Ziggy Stardust is clearly Bowie's best-known alter ego, he wasn't his first.

Major Tom was referenced in several of Bowie's songs, most notably "Space Oddity" which debuted in 1969. In the video, the cosmonaut lost in space is wearing a tight silver jumpsuit and black helmet of sorts. Bowie returned to the character in his 1980 song "Ashes to Ashes" when he gave an update on Major Tom. "We know Major Tom's a junkie, strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all time low," the lyrics state. ABC News' Luchina Fisher contributed to this report. Arts & Entertainment Remembering How David Bowie Ate, Drank, and Partied | First We Feast Remembering How David Bowie Ate, Drank, and Partied A look back at the Starman's diet quirks and the restaurants and pubs he frequented. Erin Mosbaugh Singer, songwriter, fashion icon, and influencer David Bowie died last night, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, “Blackstar.” The stars look very different today now that David Bowie has passed, and the world is mourning the loss of a legend.

To commemorate the Starman’s life, we bring you eye-opening tidbits about Bowie’s curious diet, the New York cafe he frequented, and the London pub where he started his career. The Thin White Duke’s diet consisted of peppers, cocaine, and milk A photo posted by @mrhudson on Jan 11, 2016 at 9:31am PST According to David Buckley, the author of the book Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story, Bowie’s diet in the mid-1970s consisted of red peppers, cocaine, and milk. The year 1976 was the year Bowie released his tenth studio album, Station to Station, a vehicle for the singer’s “nasty” character The Thin White Duke. Because he was using cocaine so heavily during that time, Bowie says he remembers almost nothing of the album’s production —not even the studio sessions. The singer admitted, “I know it was in L.A.

because I’ve read it was.” Bowie frequented SoHo’s Caffe Falai A photo posted by E Ho (@ericlfho) on May 7, 2011 at 10:54am PDT In 2012, a picture was snapped of a 65-year-old Bowie showing the singer’s “new image: flat cap, tatty grey hooded sweatshirt, faded jeans, carrying his lunch in a paper bag.” An article in The Telegraph —prompted by the photo—notes that “the photograph was shot after an excursion to Caffe Falai, an Italian restaurant on Lafayette Street in the trendy SoHo district of Manhattan. ‘He comes in two to three times a week,’ according to Rico, a waiter at the café. ‘He is very friendly. He usually buys a sandwich or some pasta.’ Caffe Falai is located on Lafayette Street, down the block from the £4 million [or about $5.8 USD] penthouse apartment Bowie called home. The cafe is known for its bomboloni, which Serious Eats included in its 2008 roundup of the best doughnuts in Manhattan.

The pub where Bowie launched his career is now an Italian restaurant The artist honed his craft at The Three Tuns pub in Southeast London. The pub is now a location of the Italian chain Zizzi, which is kind of a bummer, but at least there is a plaque on the outside of the restaurant commemorating Bowie. A Facebook commenter on the Beckenham Bowie page reminisces, “I remember him taking money on the door at The Three Tuns, always quiet and friendly and playing acoustic folk-style.” R.I.P., David Bowie. R.I.P. David Bowie: A Tribute to the Man Who Fell to Earth R.I.P. David Bowie: A Tribute to the Man Who Fell to Earth From Ziggy Stardust to The Thin White Duke and beyond: Crave's tribute to David Bowie. Jan 11th, 2016 Image Credit: Michael Putland / Ralph Gatti / Jo Hale / Getty Images. David Bowie has passed away at the age of 69, the legendary singer’s family has confirmed.

His death was confirmed by his son, the film director Duncan Jones, revealing that the musician had been battling cancer for 18 months before his passing on January 10th, 2016, releasing a statement to the public which reads: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.” Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m — Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016 David Bowie’s music career began in 1964 with the release of single ‘Liza Jane’, under the name of Davie Jones with the King Bees. The singer, real name David Robert Jones, later changed his name to David Bowie to avoid any confusion with The Monkees’ Davy Jones.

Bowie was catapulted into the spotlight following the release of ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969, his first hit in the UK and the beginning of his Major Tom saga, a fictional astronaut who later appeared in his singles ‘Ashes to Ashes,’ ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ and the Broadway play he co-wrote, titled ‘Lazarus’, which opened last December and told the tale of martian Major Tom Newton, with it being soundtracked by a host of Bowie songs. The Space Oddity album would also mark Bowie’s first collaboration with Tony Visconti, his long-time producer who he would work with all the way until his last release, 2016’s Blackstar. After the release of the relatively commercially unsuccessful Hunky Dory in 1971, Bowie embarked upon the most significant transformation of his entire career, unveiling his unearthly Ziggy Stardust character alongside his band the Spiders from Mars. Bowie later explained how Ziggy had been influenced by two men: the first being Vince Taylor, the frontman of ’60s band The Playboys whose life span out of control due to substance abuse, and the second being a man he met in a pub who claimed to be Lou Reed.

The Ziggy persona was famously kickstarted in Tolworth’s Toby Jug pub on February 10th, 1972. This intimate show, which featured Bowie and his band playing to a crowd of roughly 60, proved to be a pivotal moment for both Bowie and rock music in general. Stephen King, who was an audience member at the Toby Jug gig, later wrote: “I was just entranced by the entire performance. It was a heady combination of the best music I have ever heard, tremendous sound, very basic but so effective lighting. “Nothing would ever be the same again.” But Bowie’s hard-earned success wasn’t a shock for the singer. Weeks prior to the Toby Jug gig, he held an interview with Melody Maker magazine in which he predicted his rise to fame, saying: “I’m going to be huge. And it’s quite frightening in a way, because I know that when I reach my peak and it’s time for me to be brought down it will be with a bump.” Three weeks later he released The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The larger-than-life Ziggy Stardust persona Bowie had crafted led to him becoming a massive star, bolstered by an appearance on Top of the Pops where he sang ‘Starman’, a performance that would lead to both The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust… and his back catalogue swiftly ascending the music charts. Touring America following the release of the album, Bowie continued the Ziggy Stardust saga with Aladdin Sane, with his live shows leaning more and more towards theatricality as his tour progressed. However, in 1973 Bowie shocked the music world by announcing his “retirement” during a show in London’s Hammersmith Odeon, telling the crowd: “Not only is it the last show of the tour… but it’s the last show we’ll ever do,” before launching into a performance of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’. After moving to the US in 1974, Bowie returned – this time sporting a fashionable eye-patch – with Diamond Dogs, with the tour of this LP having been recorded by Alan Yentob for his documentary Cracked Actor.

This film showed Bowie’s descent into cocaine addiction, and revealed his post-fame personality to be a stark contrast to the young rock star who had spoken to Melody Magazine just two years prior. “Do you know that feeling you get in a car when somebody’s accelerating very fast and you’re not driving? And you get that “Uhhh” thing in your chest when you’re being forced backwards and you think “Uhhh” and you’re not sure whether you like it or not? It’s that kind of feeling,” Bowie said in regards to his opinion of fame. “That’s what success was like. The first thrust of being totally unknown to being what seemed to be very quickly known. It was very frightening for me and coping with it was something that I tried to do. And that’s what happened. That was me coping. Some of those albums were me coping, taking it all very seriously I was.” Cracked Actor later turned out to be the decisive factor in director Nicolas Roeg’s casting of Bowie in the 1976 cult favourite The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which he played the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien sent to Earth from his home planet in order to retrieve water.

Thomas Jerome Newton would in turn serve as the inspiration for Bowie’s next character, The Thin White Duke, who would make his debut on the album Station to Station. The Thin White Duke was a drastic departure stylistically for Bowie, seeing the singer don a white suit and slicked-back hair for the majority of the run. It was later claimed that the production of Station to Station was wrapped up across a 10-day period, with Bowie’s addiction to cocaine leading to him losing his grip on reality; Bowie would later say that his level of commitment to the characters he played also had a negative impact upon him, with him often questioning his own sanity as he began to mimic their behaviour offstage. The Thin White Duke was symbolic of a more soulful Bowie, first hinted at in 1975’s Young Americans, an LP which brought with it two of Bowie’s most enduring hits in the form of the title track and ‘Fame’, a single which resonated tremendously with the singer’s US audience. However, Bowie’s subsequent tour of Europe and the US brought with it the biggest controversy of his career, when he was photographed allegedly giving a “Nazi salute” to his fans in Victoria Station, London.

Though Bowie has denied making the gesture, it followed a string of high-profile incidents including the singer being arrested at the Russian/Polish border for carrying Nazi paraphernalia, and for making the following comment in an interview with Playboy magazine: “Britain is ready for a fascist leader… I think Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism”. He also branded Adolf Hitler a “rock star”. Bowie’s comments were made at the height of his drug addiction, with him suffering from increased paranoia and a disassociation with reality that saw him, in his own words, becoming mentally inseparable from his Thin White Duke character. “I was out of my mind, totally crazed,” he later said. “The main thing I was functioning on was mythology”. After concluding the controversial Station to Station tour, Bowie moved away from Los Angeles in order to escape the drugs littering its music scene, eventually settling in Berlin with his then-wife Mary Angela Barnett, also known as Angie Bowie, and their son Zowie Bowie, who would later go on to change his name to Duncan Jones. From here Bowie began his so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’, a collection of three albums including Low, Heroes and Lodger, which were produced by Brian Eno.

Angie later described how Bowie isolated himself during this time period in order to rehabilitate himself, saying: “Berlin called to him in other ways. He chose to live in a section of the city as bleak, anonymous, and culturally lost as possible: Schoneberg, populated largely by Turkish immigrants. He took an apartment above an auto parts store and ate at the local workingmen’s cafe. Talk about alienation.” Bowie also described the appeal of Berlin at that point in his life: “I had approached the brink of drug-induced calamity one too many times, and it was essential to take some kind of positive action,” he told Uncut. “For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary-like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn’t care.

Well, not about an English rock singer, anyway.” He later described the city as “the centre of everything that is happening and will happen in Europe over the next few years.” This period of Bowie’s career would see the release of two of his most beloved songs, ‘Sound and Vision’ and ‘Heroes’, which served as a triumphant soundtrack to the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Berlin Era concluded with concept album Lodger, with Eno believing it to be a weak point in the series of albums, leaving Bowie to yet again shape-shift as the ’80s reared its head, beginning with his divorce from Angie in 1980. Bowie launched into the New Romantic scene with ‘Ashes to Ashes’, only his second number one hit single since ‘Space Oddity’, before quickly following it up with his third number one alongside Queen in their duet ‘Under Pressure’, marking another high-profile musical collaboration from the singer following his previous partnerships with Iggy Pop (Bowie helped him recorded The Idiot and Lust for Life) and Lou Reed (Bowie produced Transformer).

Though Bowie’s ’80s career is perhaps not as well-regarded in retrospect as his work during his Berlin or Ziggy Stardust era, it did provide him with his most commercially successful run of music. Though ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Under Pressure’ were hits, in 1983 Bowie reached new heights with Let’s Dance, his fifteenth studio album, that spawned the hits China Girl, Modern Love and its title track. It would go on to become Bowie’s best-selling album, shifting 7 million copies. Co-producer Nile Rodgers later said that Bowie was looking to make a popular LP after the experimental Berlin Trilogy, saying: “Let’s Dance did exactly what David wanted it to do. The fact that it’s the biggest record of his career is not an accident; it’s what he wanted.” However, Bowie would be less favourable of the musical direction he embarked upon following the release of Let’s Dance, branding his mid-80s career his “Phil Collins era”.

His duet with Mick Jagger, ‘Dancing in the Street’, would garner him his fourth UK number one, with all benefits going to the Live Aid charity, though his music during this period was of inconsistent quality in comparison with his earlier years. It did, however, lead to him taking his most famous movie role of his career, assuming the role of Jareth the Goblin King in the 1986 movie Labyrinth. After chasing commercial success throughout the ’80s with limited results, Bowie reverted back to relative obscurity by fronting the band Tin Machine alongside Reeves Gabrel, Tony Fox Sales and Hunt Sales. With his credibility having taken a considerable hit thanks to his output during the previous decade, Bowie’s work with Tin Machine in the late ’80s/early ’90s didn’t find a particularly receptive audience, with many wishing that Bowie would return to the previous heights of his pre-Let’s Dance career. However, during this time period there was a major development in his personal life, as he married the Somali-born model model Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid. Bowie said of Iman: “You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world.

It is.” He would later have his first daughter with Aman, with her being named Alexandria Zahra Jones. Bowie released his first solo album since 1987 in 1993, with Black Tie White Noise marking a radical departure in terms of the singer’s approach to his music. The album’s video for the LP’s first single ‘Jump They Say’ showed Bowie minus any discernible character, which would represent the singer’s relative introversion over the course of the next two-and-a-half decades. Mainly ducking out of the public spotlight aside from a few interviews and his tours, Bowie had came out of the other side of his hard drug abuse and myriad controversies as an elder statesman of the music industry, leading to his induction in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. This time period would also see him reuniting with Brian Eno on 1995’s Outside. Heading into the 2000’s, Bowie’s musical output was drastically reduced as a result of health issues. In 2004 Bowie was taken ill with chest pain whilst performing in Germany, with him later discovering that he was suffering from an acutely blocked artery.

He underwent surgery as a result, but following his death his biographer Wendy Leigh claimed that his heart problems did not end in the mid-00s, saying that he had suffered “half-a-dozen” heart attacks in recent years alongside his struggle with cancer. Though Bowie would later continue making music, he brought a premature end to his live performances, only appearing onstage one last time in 2006 alongside Alicia Keys for a performance of ‘Changes’. Bowie would collaborate with a few select contemporary musicians during this time period, including an incredible performance with Arcade Fire in 2005, and joining actress Scarlett Johannson for her cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Fannin Street’ on her debut LP Anywhere I Lay My Head. Bowie’s triumphant return came in 2013 with the release of The Next Day, bringing an end to rumours that he had retired, and granting the singer his first number one album in the UK since Black Tie White Noise. The album attracted universal acclaim, though speculation that Bowie would embark upon another tour never came to fruition, with it also being reported that he was withdrawing entirely from making public interviews.

Following the success of The Next Day, Bowie once again shocked fans by announcing Blackstar in 2015, which would eventually release on January 8th, 2016 – his 69th birthday. Just days later, on January 11th, it was announced that Bowie had passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer. It’s a testament to the genius of Bowie that, even while on his deathbed, he could create something as defiant and as vital as Blackstar. It’s an album that we now know was created as he faced the end of his life, and as such it’s destined to be picked apart, deconstructed and analysed by fans for years to come. While over the course of five decades Bowie had almost convinced us that time was not applicable to him, now we’re forced to contend with the reality that he was a human after all. But while David Bowie might not have been immortal, his music is, and the legacy he has left behind is one that will excel beyond the lifetime of the man himself. Rest in peace, David Bowie. Music won’t be the same without you.

The not-so-thin white duke - MusicReviews - The not-so-thin white duke David Bowie, back on stage in Sydney for the first time in 16 years, gave a charismatic performance. Picture: Domino Postiglione Rod Laver Arena, 26-27 February Baz Luhrmann was on his feet playing air guitar and seasoned music critics were punching the air with glee. But all eyes were on David Bowie, the 57-year-old music star, who was on stage in Sydney for the first time in 16 years. Bowie had the rock star swagger of a 20-year-old when he strolled on stage, opening with his classic hit Rebel Rebel. It is nearly 40 years since Bowie, born David Jones, began recording albums in his native Britain, but age has obviously not wearied the Thin White Duke. "He's just incredibly cool, he's still soooo cool," gushed one fan. Many fans were seemingly astonished by Bowie's onstage charisma after all these years. Bowie seemed to enjoy the performance, and his enthusiasm was infectious.

In between performing songs including The Man Who Sold the World (the track he described as his breakthrough hit in the early 1970s) and current tracks from his album Reality, Bowie seemed delighted by the warm reception from the crowd. He eagerly pointed out a fan waving a wooden crutch in the air, and declared: "This is such an extraordinary country." Fans expecting a sprinkle of Ziggy Stardust were not disappointed. Even in his black jeans and dark T-shirt, Bowie evoked his best-known glam rock character simply by using his voice, posture and facial expressions. It was performance artistry at its best. Standout songs during the two-hour show included a searing version of I'm Afraid of Americans, written for his 1997 album Earthling, that is "even more relevant now", according to Bowie. The biggest hit of the show was Under Pressure, the duet Bowie originally recorded with Queen singer Freddie Mercury. The performance with Gail Ann Darsey, a member of his backing band who performed Mercury's vocals, was simply extraordinary.

Limited edition signed Bowie fine art print available now - David Bowie Latest News Limited edition signed Bowie fine art print available now "Hang him on my wall..." St Pauls Gallery in the UK is proud to add another David Bowie print to their collection of fine art poster prints. We can exclusively reveal that their latest print is the David Bowie ‘The Archer’ Fine Art Poster Print hand-signed by David Bowie and photographer John Robert Rowlands. (Pictured) This iconic image of David Bowie as The Thin White Duke was taken by renowned Rock photographer, John Rowlands, on February 26th, 1976, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada. Having seen the previous evening's show on the 1976 Station To Station / Isolar Tour, Rowlands was primed to capture the image of Bowie as ‘The Archer’ while the singer was preparing to ‘fire’ his imaginary bow and arrow. The pose was used as a signal for Bowie’s lighting engineer to kill the lights. The picture was taken moments before the lights were killed.

Rowlands took the shot about 30 feet away from the stage and he credits his Hasselblad camera for producing an image that is striking in its sharp tonal range of whites, blacks and greys. This Fine Art Print was produced from the original negative and has been re-created in 3 sizes (small, medium and large). Each size being an edition of 100 prints worldwide. Each of the prints is numbered and hand-signed in pencil by both David Bowie and John Rowlands, with every print also being accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. (COA) Rowlands travelled to the UK in Feb 2013 to sign the prints at St Pauls Gallery in Birmingham. They were then dispatched to David Bowie in New York to sign. ‘The Archer’ is among Bowie’s favourite photographs and has been adopted as the main promotional image for the V&A's ‘David Bowie is’ Exhibition in London, March through August, 2013. ‘The Archer’ is available here now. FOOTNOTE: If you use this code: IGALO209 on checkout you will get free postage on any order from the St Pauls Gallery range of Bowie prints .

FOOTNOTE 2: Obviously the signatures in this image are not to scale! The Return Of The Thin White Duke The Return Of The Thin White Duke By Richard Cromelin DAVID BOWIE, never one to maintain continuity in his work or in his life, has become more elusive than ever in the past year. The disco sound of Young Americans, the noisy split with Tony DeFries' MainMan management company, appearances on Cher and Soul Train, his first cinematic endeavour, The Man Who Fell To Earth, vague mention that he may play the lead in a film biography of Sinatra, persistent talk of his increasing interest in video systems and drugs this melange weaves a shroud of mystery and raises the question: Will the Philly bump 'n' hustle which he rightly calculated as his springboard to American chart success remain his stock-in-trade a while longer, leaving his staunch Ziggy-era fans alienated through another release? With Station To Station (the RCA album's original title was Golden Years), Bowie answers the question with an emphatic "No." He also offers cryptic, expressionistic glimpses that let us feel the contours and palpitations of the masquer's soul but never fully reveal his face.

If his R&B venture was a sidetrack, he now rejoins the main line. "There was no specific sound in mind," says Harry Maslin, who succeeded Tony Visconti as co-producer of Young Americans and returned for Station to Station. "I don't think he had any specific direction as far as whether it should be R&B, or more English-sounding, or more commercial or less commercial. I think he went out more to make a record this time than to worry about what it was going to turn out to be." Maslin has just finished listening to a new test acetate of the album ( the third, this one with more prominent high) up in the Beverly Hills offices of the new Bowie organization, Bewlay Bros. It's too late for anything but worry now, because Station to Station, begun in September, goes under the cutting block this mid-December day. A tired-eyed, stubble-chinned Earl Slick, one half of Bowie's guitar team since the Diamond Dogs tour, looks like the leader of a palace coup as he lounges in the plush leather chair behind the attorney's imposing desk. Maslin sits opposite, glancing at the sheet music that rests in his lap.

They agree that Bowie's approach this time out was in sharp contrast to his Philadelphia capers. "Young Americans was more cut and dried," Slick observes. "It was just what he wanted and that was that." Maslin adds: "I think basically he was trying to make a commercial album... He wanted to expand his acceptance, so he tried a little more Americanised direction." That commercial challenge met, Bowie was free to take a more spontaneous tack when he went into Hollywood's Cherokee Studio with Young Americans veterans Slick, Carlos Alomar (guitar), and Dennis Davis (drums), along with new bassman George Murray and Bruce Springsteen's pianist Roy Bittan. Actually, "spontaneous" hardly says it. "He had one or two songs written," says Slick, "but they were changed so drastically that you wouldn't know them from the first time anyway, so he basically wrote everything in the studio." Maslin: "To understand the way David works is to know that you can't understand the way David works. He's always changing things, just changing completely, so it's hard to tell at times what he's talking about.

Right before the mixing we would change the lyrics of a song." The title song's 10:08 time (it's the longest cut Bowie's ever issued), the depth of its complex textures, and its segmented structure qualify it as the album's most formidable challenge. "Yeah," laughs Slick, shaking his head slowly at the memory, "especially when he walks in and says 'I've got this new song that I haven't written yet'." Maslin says that, in effect, Station to Station is two songs in one, and that a "total environment" was the sonic goal. "Bizarre" is Slick's prompt evaluation of the cacophonous opening. "That's the only word I can think of. It makes sense I don't know why I'm saying that, but it makes sense to me." Its source was a train section off a sound-effects record, doctored by Maslin with equalisation and unconventional phasing methods. (He got a little help from Bowie: "David was really into it...

At times he was like a child playing with the sound.") Sombre piano chords set the tone while an insistent bass-drums-percussion pattern asserts itself beneath an urban-chaos miasma of sound beeps, hideous grinding, menacing footsteps and some wailing guitar feedback generated by Bowie and Slick width enough force to blow out three of their Marshall amps. "We both played all the way through the song," says Slick, "and then Harry took part of David's and part of mine and stuck them all together. "When the tumult gives way, the R&B rhythm of Bowie's recent music combines with the old Bowie's distinctive melodic flair to form an infectious and atmospheric whole. Bowie's first verse, which apparently refers to himself, is a slow and deliberate chiller: The return of the thin white duke Throwing darts in lovers' eyes Here are we, one magical moment Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven. "The Return of the Thin White Duke" was the song's original working title.

The dream is one of anguished uncertainty and lingering hope, with overtones both eerie (the "Drive like a demon from station to station" bridge) and mystical (as in esoterica like, "...One magical moment from Kether to Malkuth"). Halfway along, it snaps into a furious, charging tempo, and the singer's vigorous search for belief is framed by a surging English rock sound which rolls to the finish over Bowie's repeated refrain: "It's too late to be grateful/It's too late to be late again..." Among the cryptic lyrics appears the brash line, "It's not the side effects of the cocaine," perhaps a proud but polite acknowledgment of the circulating rumours. "I thought it was a little unusual for him to put that in there, but I'm glad he did," says Maslin. "He's probably tried it, like everybody else, but I wouldn't call him a cokey or anything like that." The tracks went down pretty fast once we learned them," Slick recalls. Like Slick, Maslin came to think highly of Bowie's on-the-spot approach: "It's an advantage to go in fresh like that, without rehearsals.

The band isn't stale on a song." Bowie relied quite a bit on the band's creativity and on Maslin's technical suggestions, but the basic directives resulted from David's instincts at the moment. Slick tries to describe the musical conference with Bowie that led to his commanding guitar performance on Stay but gives up with a shrug. "He explained what you hear. He doesn't say normal words. I've been wrong with him for two years and I know what he wants just by..." He can't find the phrase to complete the thought. Stay, a song of loneliness and love connections missed, is the album's most indisputably disco number. ("Denis Davis," Maslin explains, "is a black drummer from New York, and that's where his roots are. Even when you had him play in a stricter rock & roll sense, you would still get that feeling out of him.") But as Slick himself observes, his guitar solo - a swirling, tortured, impassioned workout - takes the song in an entirely new direction. "It wasn't worked out in advance," he says. "I think I was feeling right that night too." "I think you were a little spaced out that night," Maslin gently reminds him.

"I was very spaced out that night. It was done about five in the morning. I'd been waiting around four hours, drinking a lot of beer... Right, that was a beer song." Bowie refers to Word on a Wing as his hymn. Is he being facetious? How intentional are the religious connotations of the lyrics? "I don't know about Word on a Wing, to tell you the truth," says Maslin. "I get different feelings from it. I love the song. It's just unexpected out of him." The "You" that Bowie addressees in the song could well be a person (though an exceedingly rare one, a perfect lover who brings him nothing short of enlightenment). But the tremulous reverence of his low register singing, the celestial soprano voice at the end (not from an angel, but a Chamberlain, a sophisticated version of the Mellotron), and the nature of the language suggest a more lofty object: Sweet name you're born once again for me Lord I kneel and offer you my word on a wing And I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things... Lord, Lord, my prayer flies like a word on the wing I don't stand in my own light...

I'm alive in you." Has the Chameleon Kid got religion? "That's what it sounds like to me too. I don't think he's into any specific kind of religion or philosophy. He's interested in them all, and mysticism, but I think David's too intelligent to try to follow one philosophy." Like Maslin, Slick finally despairs of pinning him down. "Who knows what he's thinking at the time?" he asks with an air of affectionate exasperation. As on Word, Bowie's vocal on Wild Is the Wind impresses Maslin as "an amazing singing job." They did seven vocal takes on the latter and ended up using the first an ornate, meandering reading of the intense love lyric which captures both its exaggerated romance ("You touch me, I hear the sound of mandolins") and its undercurrent of desperate need ("Like the leaf clings to the tree/Oh my darling cling to me"). Bowie's aura and arrangement recall the mood he would evoke when performing Jacques Brel songs in concert. Recording Station to Station's vocals was tricky from Maslin's standpoint. For one thing, Bowie wasn't terrifically mike-conscious, and Maslin had to work the board hard to keep things even.

But he says, "the hardest problem is that he might change the words of a song from one time to the next, and if you engineer vocals the way I do, you have to know what he's trying to do to capture it the way you want. That doesn't mean I have to know the meaning of the words. I'm just talking about inflection and things like that. You've got to be totally aware. "He's not as critical as most singers. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even consider himself a good singer. I think he mentioned that once, just a throw-out line - 'What's the difference anyway? I'm not a singer,' something like that. Kidding, but it shows that he is a little insecure about it probably. I think he's one of the best, because he's not into any one singing style. David's so versatile with his voice, that's one of the attractive things about him.

Phrasing, mostly, is what he worries about because he's right on when it comes to intonation." The singing style on TVC 15 hearkens back to Bowie's Man Who Sold the World/Ziggy days, sporting as it does that razor-like timbre that initially seems so fragile but in the long run proves invincible. Slick says the song "just came out of nowhere" and it sounds it. "That's a song about a television that ate his girlfriend," Maslin thinks. "David is very interested in electronics, he's very interested in video, and that's supposed to be the epitome of where it could go. A hologramic television set with anything you could fit into a television." Among Bowie's urgent but whimsical lyrics: Each night I sit there pleading Bring back my dream-test baby She's my main feature My TVC15 he just stares back unblinking So hologramic, Oh my TVC15. From start to finish, Golden Years is the purest descendant of the Young Americans sound, but even so the disco sound has been highly modified.

It was one of the few songs the group rehearsed, the first they completed, and the one that immediately seemed right as the single pick. Maslin achieved the "round" quality of the backing voices by using an old, neglected RCA mike. (Similarly, he tried to utilise different microphones on Bowie's leads throughout the album to gain a variety in sound that would complement Bowie's stylistic diversity). Station to Station was recorded on 24 tracks, a method that presented a stiff challenge to Maslin and his mere ten fingers on the final mix but which allowed great flexibility. They could for example, "waste" a channel on a single sound-effect which could then be tampered with at whim, and they were able to double instruments and voices live rather than mechanically. Maslin and Slick remember fun times from the two and a half months of recording, but in the main it was serious, demanding work. "It was rigorous," says Maslin without hesitation. "We tried to keep it on a private basis. Not too many people in there usually no one... We started at 10 or 11 at night and went to anywhere from eight in the morning to whatever, 36 hours later.

David knows exactly what he wants, it's just a matter of sitting there and doing it till it's done." Maslin also has high regard for Bowie as a producer: "I think he's far more advanced than the average producer. He knows a great deal about technical things. He doesn't know everything, he's not an engineer, but he knows more about arranging a song, he knows more about how to relate to people and get what he wants out of them... If you listen to the rhythms specifically on this album, there are very strange things going on rhythmically between all the instruments... If nothing else, David's a genius when it comes to working out rhythmic feels. He was the mainstay behind it all." At its various whistle stops, Station recalls in turn the density of The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory's pop feel, the dissonance and angst of Aladdin Sane, the compelling percussion style of Young Americans, and even a trace of the youthful mysticism of the early Wild-Eyed Boy from Freecloud. For now, it renders Young Americans a momentary (if musically important) diversion.

And although Bowie retraces some past steps, Station to Station is much too strong and much too original to be classed as a rerun. At a time when, for him, it was becoming too late to be late again, it shows Bowie pulling out on the most challenging leg of his winding journey. David Bowie: singer's pale appearance reignites health fears - Telegraph Celebrity news David Bowie: singer's pale appearance reignites health fears He used to be known for his flamboyant outfits and outrageous personas, but David Bowie now cuts a pale shadow of his former self. David Bowie has been almost invisible since suffering a heart attack in 2004 Photo: REX FEATURES/SPLASH NEWS 8:09AM BST 18 Oct 2012 The reclusive singer has been pictured in New York on a rare public outing dressed in grey cap and hooded top, bearing little resemblance to the fashion icon of the 1970s. Bowie, 65, whose alter egos have included the alien-like Ziggy Stardust and the dapper thin white duke, lives in a large Lower-Manhattan apartment with his ex-model wife Iman and daughter Lexi.

He was pictured picking up a takeaway lunch from the Italian Bottega Falai Café in New York. Rumours about the health of the former heavy smoker and drug addict have been circulating ever since his ill fated 2004 tour. The problems began with an incident in Norway when a fan threw a lollipop that hit Bowie in the eye, causing him to storm offstage. Related Articles David Bowie and Mick Jagger's long-rumoured love affair revealed in new book 10 Jul 2012 A few days later, he cut short another performance, believing he had pinched a nerve in his shoulder. The muscle pain was due to a clogged coronary artery and at his next gig, in Scheeßel, Germany, he delivered a final encore of Ziggy, went backstage and collapsed. Since recuperating from the heart surgery, Bowie has reduced his musical output, making only one-off appearances on stage and in the studio. He attended the opening of his son Duncan Jones' film Moon in 2009 but has made few public appearances since. He resurfaced earlier this year in order to distance himself from an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

More than 60 of the singer’s classic stage outfits, among them his Ziggy Stardust space-traveller suits and the oversized Yamamoto kabuki ensemble, went on view along with hundreds of artefacts including handwritten lyrics and artwork. Responding to an erroneous report that he would be the co-curator of the show, the polymorphic rocker took to Facebook to deny any direct involvement. “Contrary to recently published reports relating to the announcement by the V&A of an forthcoming David Bowie Exhibition,” he stated, “I am not a co-curator and did not participate in any decisions relating to the exhibition". He has not released a studio album for nine years or performed live since 2006. A controversial biography 'Mick: the Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger', released earlier this year by author Christopher Andersen alleged that Mick Jagger and David Bowie were once lovers in the 1970s. “He has consciously dropped out of sight,” said Paul Trynka, author of a well-received Bowie biography, Starman, published last year.

Question: Which singer is /was known as the 'Thin White Duke'?
Answer: David Bowie